Wow. I should pay
more attention to imagery. I wasn’t aware that it played such a
role in these poems. I choose images because I like them, because I can’t
see anything else, because they are the truest things at the time. They
develop, I guess, because I’m not done with them, they are still
important – I do not understand them yet, therefore I try to see
them from lots of angles. Maybe it’s something like trying to write
a “multiple perspective” research paper, but there’s
no where to go for the research?

In the poem "A Lobsterman's Sleeve", what is the relevance of
the Lobsterman?

The Lobsterman is
someone we all need. He is indifferent, yet compassionate. Maybe he’s
a sort of Buddha figure. I think that you could ask me this question again
and I’d have a different opinion. But the lobsterman would remain
consistently gentle and kindhearted. In this role, he is what I strive
to be.

What is the significance of the space surrounding the hydrogen atom stanza?

Maybe this space is
thought, a pause, a breath, after the previous stanza. It is also distance,
it is narrative movement from all of the tangled legs and shopping carts
(probably bent and battered) and something new. It is also the denial
of the hydrogen atom, denial of the potential of it.

How do you choose forms for each poem, and why these specific forms in
each poem?

I don’t like
to choose forms, but maybe they are according to breath. You must read
Charles Olson’s Projective Verse. We don’t think
about breathing, and I don’t map out where a poem will land on a
page. But they land.

What purpose did you have when writing "Recursive Government"?

It was part of my
dissertation, so, vaguely, in the back of my mind, I thought of it as
something that a character (Harry) might see. Also, I have seen many people
sit very still on green benches in parks. It makes me wonder. Also, it’s
true that we (some) would like to believe that capitalists are not human,
but they are. We all are.